Ireland has 10th safest roads in world: OECD

Bodan

Ireland is now ranked as the 10th safest country in the world, according to a new global road safety report.

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has found that out of 27 countries, Ireland had the fifth most improved road safety record, with six road deaths per 100,000 of the population.

The study found that road fatalities have dropped by almost a third since 2005.

However, the OECD also said the fatality risk to 18- to 20-year-olds in Ireland is three times higher than that of the general population.

Link: http://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/ireland-has-10th-safest-roads-in-world-oecd-445170.html#ixzz0eru8p8Dc

marmurr1916

There were 11 road fatalities per 100,000 population in 2000 (http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/56/32/2487308.pdf) the fatality rate has almost halved since then.

A lot of that must be down to the increased percentage of motorways and dual-carriageways in the road network.

Chris_5339762

Definately. Safety wise the M9 completion, M11 gap, M17/18 and M20 will reduce that further. Most other schemes wont do much to the safety record. Badly needed schemes like Adare, Claregalway and SRR roundabouts wont make a difference as traffic is stopped anyway!

bacon&cabbage

In fairness I think a certain amount of credit must go to the Govt for this. They have strongly pushed a road safety agenda and their determination to complete the MIU's (late I know) has helped

road_high

The new roads have made a big difference. Parts of the old N1, N7, N8, N9, N11 in particular had all major accident blackspots. These are now bypassed, thankfully.

Tech3

I wouldnt just mention the motorway network, some good S2 and WS2 have got rid of a few bad blackspots. Take the N21 Abbeyfeale to Castleisland scheme where the previous road at headleys bridge was very dangerous.

Tommy Bateman

This study makes me proud to be Irish, but even prouder to be a FF voter.

challengemaster

I'm hardly the only one to think that whoever wrote this has obviously never actually driven on Irish roads, especially country ones.

irishdub14

Tommy Bateman wrote: »

This study makes me proud to be Irish, but even prouder to be a FF voter.

ewww.

Carawaystick

Tommy Bateman wrote: »

This study makes me proud to be Irish, but even prouder to be a FF voter.

have you any proof of this?

G_R

Tommy Bateman wrote: »

This study makes me proud to be Irish, but even prouder to be a FF voter.

Oh so your one of them

Slice

challengemaster wrote: »

I'm hardly the only one to think that whoever wrote this has obviously never actually driven on Irish roads, especially country ones.

I was wondering how long it would take for this report to be shot down

Zoney

Well, as good as the rank is, just imagine what it would be if one of the biggest issues in the country was tackled - drink. There are still far too many reports of single car collisions in the wee hours of the morning, although presumably some are just the hazards of driving at night on country roads.

Maybe it is the small size of the country - you can often be familiar with an area when you hear a report and think certain accidents could have been avoided. Or indeed you know someone who knows the person (or no doubt some contributors here have been directly affected). Whatever the reason, I think there is incentive regardless of a high rank to do better. Getting into a car (or indeed walking along the road) is still quite a dangerous activity in general terms.

As regards the current rank, I wouldn't just put it down to the new roads - other countries have motorway networks and some of ours has barely been opened - so presumably too recent to affect past statistics. Considering the poor driving you see every day here, there must be some other factor. Perhaps having hard shoulder on so much single carriageway is also a positive? (all the 1980s/1990s work) Also we have few dual carriageways with no hard shoulder (experience from NI/UK makes me think these are surely a bit lethal). It's encouraging as despite the downturn, we are slowly improving more of the road network.

It would be interesting to hear the comments of any non-Irish contributors as to what they think contributes to this rank?

Tommy Bateman

Carawaystick wrote: »

have you any proof of this?

The proof is in the concrete.

fricatus

Zoney wrote: »

As regards the current rank, I wouldn't just put it down to the new roads - other countries have motorway networks and some of ours has barely been opened - so presumably too recent to affect past statistics.

I'd agree with most of your post above, but not this point. Every time a new section of motorway is opened, that's another big chunk of single-carriageway, national-road traffic that disappears. With it go hundreds and thousands of potential head-on collisions, since it's the national road network that carries the bulk of the traffic in this country.

Remember how many fatal accidents there used to be on the old N1, for example? With the new motorway, these simply disappeared.

spacetweek

Slice wrote: »

I was wondering how long it would take for this report to be shot down

10 hours to be exact - pretty slow by normal Boards standards!

The report is good news of course.

Can I point out that if we didn't have bungalow blitz in this country, and people lived in towns and cities like they're supposed to, no-one would need to drive on those country boreens?

mikom

spacetweek wrote: »

Can I point out that if we didn't have bungalow blitz in this country, and people lived in towns and cities like they're supposed to, no-one would need to drive on those country boreens?

We have enough automatons, thanks.

spacetweek

fricatus wrote: »

Remember how many fatal accidents there used to be on the old N1, for example? With the new motorway, these simply disappeared.

Yea back in 2003 I remember a s**tty story about the N1.

It was 4 months before the M1 Swords-Balbriggan stretch would open, and a couple were using the old N1 to get to the airport. They were heading off on a gap year. On the way they were involved in a fatal collision which killed the bloke.

I remember thinking how crappy it was that this had to happen when only 4 months later the M1 would have saved him. So, when a road is dangerous, it's so essential to replace it as soon as possible. Every extra month it exists, it needlessly endangers people's lives.

nordydan

fricatus wrote: »

Remember how many fatal accidents there used to be on the old N1, for example? With the new motorway, these simply disappeared.

Indeed the new road is 30 times safer, three times busier in places with 10% of the accidents.

Danno

I think the title is rather mis-leading... Irish roads are far from safe. It's the safe way that the majority of Irish people drive on the roads.

Slice

Well it's not just better roads, it's also introduction of penalty points, introduction of the NCT, reduced speed limits in built up areas, introduction of speed traps, reduced alcohol limits, introduction of the car scrapping scheme, road safety campaign, etc.

People are also more safety conscious - I don't think I know anyone comfortable driving without a seatbelt on in either the front or the rear passenger seat anymore. That says a lot. Also, and maybe this has less to do with it, but the fact that cycling is on the up means there are more drivers who are also cyclists which in turn means there are more drivers who are aware and conscious of cyclists.

Zoney

fricatus wrote: »

I'd agree with most of your post above, but not this point. Every time a new section of motorway is opened, that's another big chunk of single-carriageway, national-road traffic that disappears. With it go hundreds and thousands of potential head-on collisions, since it's the national road network that carries the bulk of the traffic in this country.

Remember how many fatal accidents there used to be on the old N1, for example? With the new motorway, these simply disappeared.

fricatus: I agree that's a huge factor in *improvement* of our rank - what I mean is how could it be the main factor in our high rank overall compared to other countries? There are a lot more than 9 countries with as extensive motorway networks as ours was until a year or so ago (prior to recent openings - which would only skew the statistics since 2005 a small bit as they haven't been open long at all, months in some cases).

EDIT: sorry, just noticed that there is also a ranking of 5th for most improved safety - this of course is indeed explainable by the new roads. But I am referring to the "10th safest in the world" rank.

serfboard

Slice wrote: »

Well it's not just better roads, it's also introduction of penalty points, introduction of the NCT, reduced speed limits in built up areas, introduction of speed traps, reduced alcohol limits, introduction of the car scrapping scheme, road safety campaign, etc.

People are also more safety conscious - I don't think I know anyone comfortable driving without a seatbelt on in either the front or the rear passenger seat anymore. That says a lot. Also, and maybe this has less to do with it, but the fact that cycling is on the up means there are more drivers who are also cyclists which in turn means there are more drivers who are aware and conscious of cyclists.

While I do think think it's mainly roads, there is validity to what you say. I'd also add one more thing to your list - safer cars. More cars now are going for 5 stars on NCAP, and it is used more as a selling point.

Roryhy

serfboard wrote: »

While I do think think it's mainly roads, there is validity to what you say. I'd also add one more thing to your list - safer cars. More cars now are going for 5 stars on NCAP, and it is used more as a selling point.

While i accept that point, it's also the case that every other country in Europe has the same selection of cars keeping their citizens alive too!

L1011

Roryhy wrote: »

While i accept that point, it's also the case that every other country in Europe has the same selection of cars keeping their citizens alive too!

The car stock in many European countries is older on average than here. The UK and Holland come to mind.

The main reason you can have relatively bad, relatively safe roads is that many of the older "good" road types are very dangerous - fast, straight single carriageway roads have a huge number of head-ons; old dual carriageways have serious right-turn accidents (and we only have a tiny amount of this left in the entire country) and so on.

Jumpy

serfboard wrote: »

While I do think think it's mainly roads, there is validity to what you say. I'd also add one more thing to your list - safer cars. More cars now are going for 5 stars on NCAP, and it is used more as a selling point.

No way man, you crash in one of these and there will be sponge and cream everywhere.

Bill G

Slice wrote: »

Well it's not just better roads, it's also introduction of penalty points, introduction of the NCT, reduced speed limits in built up areas, introduction of speed traps, reduced alcohol limits, introduction of the car scrapping scheme, road safety campaign, etc.

People are also more safety conscious - I don't think I know anyone comfortable driving without a seatbelt on in either the front or the rear passenger seat anymore. That says a lot. Also, and maybe this has less to do with it, but the fact that cycling is on the up means there are more drivers who are also cyclists which in turn means there are more drivers who are aware and conscious of cyclists.

It's cute you think the NCT (aNother Car Tax) does anything to reduce the fatality rate in accidents....

murphaph

Bill G wrote: »

It's cute you think the NCT (aNother Car Tax) does anything to reduce the fatality rate in accidents....

Properly implemented, the NCT would without any doubt reduce fatalities. The only question is whether or not it's properly implemented when the original rules about a requirement for a valid NCT cert to be presented in order to tax the car seem to have fallen by the wayside, which is a shame.

the NCT catches (or should catch in theory) things like leaking and cracked brake hoses, brake imbalances, worn shocks etc. which absolutely contribute to safety of the vehicle.

Zubeneschamali

I don't rate Garda enforcement of speed or drink driving as a contributor at all. People still speed all over the place, and the odds of being caught are small. Less than one person per pub per year is convicted of drink driving, and we all know there's a lot more of it going on than that. Road safety campaigns are a joke.

The big one is safer roads, which eliminates a lot of truck-takes-out-entire-family accidents. Seatbelts, NCAP testing and airbags really help with the single-vehicle-into-pole accidents.

If we could make drink-driving and SUV-driving socially unacceptable, that would really help too.

ardmacha

and people lived in towns and cities like they're supposed to,

People aren't supposed to live in any particular place, except in dictatorships where they are concentrated so that they can be better controlled.

Properly implemented, the NCT would without any doubt reduce fatalities. The only question is whether or not it's properly implemented when the original rules about a requirement for a valid NCT cert to be presented in order to tax the car seem to have fallen by the wayside, which is a shame.

Absolutely. In this day and age of databases there should be no need for sending around bits of paper, the motor tax should simply check the NCT database.

And drink driving has become less acceptable, the stats show this.

KevR

The opening of the M6 Galway-Ballinasloe (December) has taken most traffic of the old N6 (the narrow, sharp bending, poorly surfaced section at Cappataggle springs immediately to mind) and other extremely poor roads such as the R347, R348, R349 and R339 (fine from Galway City to Carnmore Cross, but not great after that). The old N6 between Athlone and Ballinasloe wasn't great either and was bypassed by the M6 in July.

The M18 Gort-Crusheen, when it opens later this year, will take traffic of the the very poor existing N18 between the two towns.

Hopefully we'll see a further reduction in the number of lives lost this coming year with the opening of more sections of safe, high quality roads.